Update:Me
Hi there... First, I'm sorry that I have not been around for several months now. I have been having some very serious RL matters to attend to such that I had literally no time to deal with the MUD. In the end, I am most likely moving from New Jersey to California starting October 6th or so. The server will continue to reside in NJ (making it slightly difficult for me to drive to the box if there are any more hardware difficulties - hopefully all of that has long since been ironed out since we moved to the new server. Second, I know that some number of things have happened over the last number of months. Some of which were positive, some not. Some I agree with, some I don't necessarily agree with (but wasn't here or barely even available to offer my two cents on). I'll do my best to sort things out once I come back up to speed once my RL matters are sorted out. In the least, you should all be aware that my STANDING mandate for the players and immortals are: "play the game". Period. We are GOING to punish folks (and always have) who abuse things or privileges. We are going to have to change things. Keep in mind that as the game evolves, sometimes the code just can't keep up with it and rules need to be placed. Finally, there have been situations raised by both mortals and immortals to me personally about things going on. Much of that seems to have cooled down now thankfully, but I still feel I have a few fences to mend for both sides. So I'm hereby telling BOTH sides to "cool off" for a while, and just "play the game". Some of the situations I will not revisit at all. Some of them I will and may not change anything. Some of them I will revisit and may alter the outcome. I'll be looking at the various cases that people (both imms and mortals) have contacted me about. Keep the following things in mind (regardless of what side you are on). I'm a 32 yr old professional software developer. I have dealt with office and corporate politics and antics every day over years and years. I recognize there are some people who will simply never be pleased. I recognize there are some people who are incapable of presenting a non-emotional set of points to support their case. I recognize there are some people who despite how much they complain about a place or situation, they simply don't leave and move on. They stay and complain, or they leave and complain, or they are undecided about staying or going and still complain. Both in the MUD and in RL I recognize that over the years management promotes certain individuals, only to be completely betrayed by them and/or have them act like children by airing dirty laundry on the internet or just generally defaming (rightly or wrongly) the place or other management. For any other professionals out there who frequent message boards - you know exactly what I'm talking about. I have seen "disgruntled employees" while they are still EMPLOYED by the company - yet they didn't leave even in the booming economy of the 1990s. If someone writes a very professional post describing some specifics of what's wrong with a place - it probably has some (unknown) amount of truth to it. The general emotional flames without matter of fact evidence usually are just crap. I make sure my employees at work understand this, and no matter how poorly another group is treating them - they are not entitled to respond in a nasty manner to them. I require them to simply document the issues as they happen and forward them to me. I don't think there is any doubt that the mature approach to being unhappy with an environment you once liked is to privately notify the relevant upper management of the situation in a matter of fact, respectful way, and if appropriate results are not received - simply leave quietly and respect what you once had. This certainly applies to the MUD here as well. Believe me, if you fit into any of these categories (imm or mortal) I will recognize you, and no doubt reasonably quickly dismiss what you've raised to me. So, if an immortal was completely in the wrong when they zapped you, and you acted like a child trying to hack the place, log on and call the imm names, post flames on the boards, etc - I will likely uphold the zap simply on your subsequent actions alone. If however you acted with any amount of maturity to a wrong (in your opinion) that was done to you by the game - I am certainly interested to hear about it. Again all of that applies to mortals and immortals. I have certainly received some number of very considerate, thoughtful, and professionally worded complaints from both sides - and I'll see if I can get past my personal RL difficulties soon and help put them behind us - not to mention add some new features again. Thanks and regards, -- Flash